


There is a hole in the plan! - A Civil War AU

by PersonalSpaceStef



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Canon Divergence - Captain America: Civil War (Movie), Fix-It, Paperwork
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-05
Updated: 2017-02-05
Packaged: 2018-09-22 06:48:26
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,704
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9589430
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PersonalSpaceStef/pseuds/PersonalSpaceStef
Summary: Zemo's plan to destroy the Avengers from the inside out was more than just complicated. The holes in that plan are so big you could practically drive a train through them.This is a One Shot AU about a little paper pusher who saved the Avengers. Her weapon a 40-pages long report that apparently no one read.Or do you believe a random psychologist gets to talk to Barnes in a super secret base and no one actually checked him beforehand!Long live the UN! Long live the paperwork!





	

Ten minutes ago her boss had gotten the call and send her on her way.

The Winter Soldier, James B. Barnes, had been arrested in Bucharest by German Special Forces.  
Quite a few of them had been seriously hurt by non-other than Captain America. No one had been killed, but that was only thanks to luck.

This was quite the cluster-fuck. A political nightmare if there ever was one. 

Now she was on her way to Berlin. James B. Barnes was to be questioned there and afterwards he would be off to Den Haag. And she would accompany him. It was procedure.

Arriving in Berlin at the Joint Counter Terrorist Centre she was informed that one of the four arrested persons was the new King of Wakanda.  
She almost wanted to turn around and go back to bed. She would spent a lot of her time in here biting her tongue. She could already feel it.

 

Glass walls everywhere. Glass walls in a place where everyone had secrets. Pretty stupid. She thought briefly. 

After her security clearance, her belongings and her person had been thoroughly checked, she was led to Everett Ross. He was the head of this special circus.

She greeted him politely in English. Her French accent was, after all these years, barely noticeable.

He got straight to the point.  
“Hello, Ms. Durand. The UN informed me about your arrival only moments ago and to be honest I’m not sure what you are doing here.”

“Really? It seems obvious. The UN has issued an international arrest warrant against Mr. Barnes. I work for the UN, the DSS to be specific.”

“I understand. But as far as I was informed the King of Wakanda is probably leaving here with the price. If you know what I mean.”  
The look that accompanies this sentence shows the frustration of the situation. But she knows, that he would never really speak his thoughts on this matter. Not here at least.  
The King of Wakanda is making this personal and thus unprofessional. A criminal belongs in front of tribunal. She doubts that is going to happen in Wakanda. 

“I would like to speak with him and the Avengers, before Dr. Broussard starts his interrogation.”

“Dr. Broussard was told he could start in 5 minutes.”

“So? Barnes isn’t going anywhere. Besides we’re in Germany. Tell Dr. Broussard he has to fill out some forms or something. They love there paper work here. Don’t they?” [Comment from the author: I’m allowed to make jokes about Germans since I’m one.]

He smirks shortly at her comment, but his face turns neutral again and this time he is looking over her shoulder.

“Secretary Ross? What can I do for you?”, the tone of the other Ross (they are not related, she had checked) is polite but she can hear the strain just fine.

“Secretary of State Ross?”, she asks surprised and turns around.

And there he his, Thunderbolt Ross, Secretary of State Ross. The American General Ross. And he is glaring daggers at her.

‘I should have become a human cannonball instead. Better for the health.’, she thinks. 

# * # * # * # * # * # * # * #

Tony and Natasha look curiously after Secretary Ross. 

“Where is he off to?”, Tony asks. He gets no answer.

They’re eyes don’t leave the scene in front of them. 

Everett Ross, the other Ross and a woman are standing in the middle of the hall.

She looks to be in her thirties and thanks to her cloth and her hairstyle quiet strict. Her skirt, cardigan and briefcase are black. The blouse she wears is light blue. Her long brown hair is in a simple ponytail. She wears glasses.  
But Tony can tell she cares about her appearance. The cloth are tailored to fit and her shoes are definitely not flats. But fuck-with-me-and-I-put-my-heel-in-your-eye shoes. They make her legs look good. He misses Pepper and regular sex.

‘Hot Liberian.’, he thinks and Natasha, because she can read minds, elbows him softly.

# * # * # * # * # * # * # * #

“What are you doing here?”, Thaddeus Ross askes without preamble.

“Sir, I’m Sophie Durand. I work for the UN. The Department of Safety and Security. One year ago I nominated Dr. Broussard for the questioning of James Barnes. It was agreed on that I would be a witness to that. Afterwards I will escort Mr. Barnes to Den Haag where he is to face justice.”

“I didn’t agree to this.”, was the growled answer.

“Frankly sir, I don’t know what you are doing here. Nor do I care much. The decision was made before you came into your office and it was made by the UN. Not the US of A.”, Sophie smiles her sweetest smile. If looks could kill she would be a bloody mess on the floor.

“There is no need for you to be here. I already talked with Dr. Broussard and informed him about the direction of his questions.” The sentence is accompanied by a gesture to his right sight.

Sophie barely listens to him. She is too busy staring at the man Ross pointed to.  
One of the lower agents is currently handing the stranger a glass of water and a piece of paper.

Secretary Ross isn’t aware of it, but Sophie is clearly at the last of her patience.  
Her cheeks turn pink from rage, but before she can lay onto the high government official Everett interrupts. 

“How about you have this discussion in the conference room. I will inform Dr. Broussard that he needs a bit more patience. Thanks to red tape.”  
He shows them back into the room, where Tony Stark and Agent Romanov are sitting.

Before he leaves the gunpowder and fire room behind him, he asks if he should send Rogers and Wilson to them. Basically adding fuel to the mix.

“Yes. Please. Thank you.” Everett Ross flees the room.

“They have no right to be here. They were arrested. They should be -”

She interrupts him and shocks him into silence. “You shouldn’t be speaking to Dr. Broussard. I understand it is a difficult thing for you to believe but this show is not run by you. Or your country. A terrorist attack in the UN buildings, the Joint Counter Terrorist Centre and an international arrest warrant issued by the UN. We are not in the Wild West and you are not a cowboy nor a general. 193 countries are members of the UN. You just represent one of them. Try and think about that in the future.” 

His face goes from deep red to white rage. His shoulder twitches and his hands are curled tightly into fists. Any moment he is going to squeeze the breath out of her lungs. She can basically taste the blood on her lips.

“Wow. You’ve got balls, lady.”, Wilson drawls from the other side of the room, where he and Rogers had just entered.

Before Thaddeus Ross can maim her though, his phone chirps. He leaves the room, with an ominous “This isn’t over yet.”.

Sophie takes a deep breath and turns to face the Avengers.

“Mr. Stark. My name is Sophie Durand. My supervisor talked to you earlier.” She points to Wilson and Rogers. “Are their names under the Accords now?”

“What why? I think it’s a bit late for that. Don’t you?”

“I would say so, yes. But this decision is ‘way above my paygrade’, as you Americans love to say.”

Tony turns to face his friends.  
“Ok, guys. I managed to get the higher ups to agree, that if you sign the Accords now, the last 24 hours basically didn’t happen. You officially helped arrest Barnes. We get him a really good lawyer. You fucking read the accords and we all write up what should be changed in the law.  
And before you say anything Steve. The accords are not something you can fight at the moment. 113 countries choose them. We have to accept that. If you want to be there for your friend, you need a security clearance. You don’t have that as a civilian.”

“Give me a pen.”, Sam says immediately. Rogers jerks his head around to stare at the other man, affectively ending the staring contest with Tony.

Sophie uses the time to write a short message to Everett Ross.

‘Can you find out where Dr. Broussard’s phone has been before he came here. Have that place checked and his hotel room.’

# * # * # * # * # * # * # * #

When the signing is done and the papers are squared away, Sophie turns to face Natasha.

“Can the new King of Wakanda be reasoned with?” Natasha looks inquiringly at her, but doesn’t answer.

“The nicer Ross told me, that Wakanda would be going home with Mr. Barnes.”

As expected Steve is outrageous. “He can’t do that.” 

Sophie rolls her eyes at him and says dryly. “большой. наивный и светловолосый.”

Steve glares at her, when Natasha and Tony smirk/chuckle. “I don’t speak Russian.”  
“Believe me, I know.”, her French accent is making an appearance.

“She called you blond and naïve, Mr. Rogers.”, says someone from the door.   
Sophie pouts at the newcomer before she realizes who he probably is.  
Both Ross’ men enter behind him.

The stranger takes a step forward and shakes her outstretch hand.

“Sophie Durand, Your Highness. I am very sorry for you loss. You have my deepest sympathies. ”

He thanks her and then asks very politely, who she is exactly.

“I work for the UN, the Department of Safety and Security. As well as you know the UN has issued an international arrest warrant. So I would escort Mr. Barnes to Den Haag. Where he is to be evaluated and brought to justice.”

“I’m afraid, that’s not going to happen. Mr. Barnes will go to Wakanda.”

“With all due respect, Your Highness, that sounds rather personal.”

No one speaks. It seems like no one is breathing either.

Then a phone rings and Everett moves. “Excuse me, please. Ms Durand would you please follow me.”

Steve starts a heated argument with the new King of Wakanda as they leave the room. 

# * # * # * # * # * # * # * #

“I didn’t want you to start an international incident. You’re going to talk to Dr. Broussard now. And maybe give your boss a call and inform him about all the feet you have stepped on in the last ten minutes.”

She opens her mouth to disagree but realizes that he’s completely right.

“You’re team?” “Nothing yet.”

He turns away to take his call. She looks around and decides doing what Everett Ross asked her to do, would be a really bad idea.

So she does the second sensible thing. She finds herself a bathroom to hide in for 10 minutes.

# * # * # * # * # * # * # * #

When she arrives in the conference room the temperature has dropped 20 degrees. Sophie can basically see her breath in white clouds in front of her.

The King of a country and the Secretary of State of one of the most powerful countries glared at her.  
‘I really should have stayed in bed this morning.’

Lucky for her Everett Ross choose that moment to enter the conference room from the other side.  
He waggles his phone in her direction.

“They found something.”   
“You could say that. How about you explain the part you haven’t told anyone here.”

She smiles and pulls a small folder from her briefcase.

“Secretary Ross. Did you read my report on Dr. Broussard before you talked to him?”

His scowl tells her everything. “I did not memories every word. But yes, I read it.”

“I seriously doubt you even opened it. Before you talked to him, against the wishes of the UN, might I add.”

Tony steals the report and starts to paging through it. The page under the cover is the last thing he looks at. “Huh.”

“Exactly. The guy who sits just around the corner most certainly is not Dr. Broussard.”

Secretary Ross rips the report from the surprised looking Stark. He stares in disbelief at the picture of a men, he definitely has never met before.

“Are you sure?”

“Yes. I met Dr. Broussard personally 6 month ago. He is an expert on military trauma and brainwashed victims. He is the first choice for this case.”

“Was.”, Everett interrupts Sophie. “My team found his body in the tub of a hotel room.”

“I assume the guest was the fake Dr. Broussard?”

“Yes. The staff recognized him. They also found things that indicate he was involved in the Vienna Bombing.”

“Or it was only him.”, Steve comments. 

Everett gives a sign to four of his agents and they arrest the intruder.

Watching the fake intruder being placed in handcuffs and then escorted away, Sophie can’t help but comment. “That was rather anticlimactic. Not worthy of any spy movie.”

Then the lights go out. “Upps.”

# * # * # * # * # * # * # * #

Nothing has changed when the power is back. Barnes is still in his little mobile cell. The fake Doctor is still in custody, though he tried to flee. Too bad he did it in sight of Capt. America and a few pissed of agents.

The forensic team, who checked out the hotel room and later the power plant, return with information.

Shortly after, Sophie Durand is again arguing with the King of Wakanda for a prisoner. A different one this time. No help from Capt. Rogers this time, though. Naturally she loses the argument and her boss tells her to leave it alone.

T’Challa leaves the room. That leaves the Avengers, Secretary Ross and one paper pushing UN official, who is feeling quite out of her depth, to be honest.

“So Bucky wasn’t responsible for the Bombing in Vienna. You can let him go now.”, Steve says softly.

Ross scoffs. The annoyance clear on his face.

“Yes. I have a warrant for his arrest. Since he was an international assassin for HYDRA.”

“He was brainwashed.” Steve is standing now. The flag is almost waving in the background.

“Then the psychologist will confirm that. He is going to Den Haag. According to Zemo and that stupid red book, a few wrong words are enough to make him into a murdering puppet.”

“How about a compromise, Capt. Rogers. Barnes will go to a secure facility in the states. You can visit him there without problem. Or stay in the employee quarters.”, Ross says.

“Thank god, finally. I am done being nice to you.”, Sophie answers and gets up from her chair. She writes a short message to her boss.

“She was nice to him?”, Sam asks Tony quietly. Tony smirks and comments. “She makes all this shit worth it.”

“Are you forgetting who you’re talking to?”

She ignores him and turns back to look at Ross. “I was responsible for the danger evaluation of the Avengers before the Barnes thing. So I know quite a bit about them. Probably even more than they know about each other.”

“I doubt that.”, Natasha says shortly.

“You have no idea how often your name was mentioned in Dr. Banners file.”, Sophie continues softly. Everyone looks interested now.

“Your former daughter was questioned. She didn’t have a single nice thing to say about you.”

Everett chooses that moment to interrupt, knocking on the glass door. Waving a piece of paper in her direction, he says quiet unhappily. “This is a joke, right?”

She shakes her head smirking.   
“Can we stop the conversation here for a sec. I need popcorn.” Tony is shushed immediately. 

“I’m going to have you fired for your behavior.”

“Actually, you are. And then you are been arrested. But first fired. My boss was very clear on that one.”

Again the silence is interrupted by a phone ringing.

“You should answer this. It’s the President.”, Everett says quietly and gives the page to the other man, who promptly turns white.

They both leave the room, two agents following closely behind.

“I am dying of curiosity here! You need to tell us.”

“Apparently it’s a crime to take blood from super soldiers. And using it to try and make more. And his whole involvement with Dr. Banner’s case was apparently forgotten. And maybe he was involved with Zemo. No one knows yet.”

# * # * # * # * # * # * # * #

Two days later T’Challa leaves Berlin with Helmut Zemo and Sophie Durand leaves with Barnes. 

Her destination is Den Haag. She is accompanied by the Avengers.

**Author's Note:**

> So Zemo's plan was complicated and twisted but rather unrealistic. If you ask me, if they had shown him when something didn't happened like he wanted it to, and he would be like "Now I need a Plan B" it would have been more realistic.
> 
> There was one thing that surprised me quite a bit about the movie. Considering that it’s a “Captain America”-Movie, there are quite a few things Steve does and says, that are total asshole behavior.  
> Be it his disregard for the arresting police men (who are the good guys!) or the opinion of 113 countries.  
> The fact he always has to hit everything on site. Tony said in AOU they fight so they can go home (and stop fighting), but I don’t think Steve would be able to do that. He would find a way to start a fight. Even in a cinema. 
> 
> It just seemed like you we not supposed to leave the movie being a Capt. America fan anymore.


End file.
